Seven robberies were reported in the area in the past three years. Police said the road passes through fields on both sides and is near the Yamuna Expressway, giving criminals enough leeway to quickly escape.

The car in which eight members were travelling to Bulandshahr from Jewar. Four women were allegedly gang raped and one man was shot dead by armed assailants in Greater Noida.(Virendra Singh Gosain/HT PHOTO)

Police said the road passes through fields on both sides and is near the Yamuna Expressway, giving criminals enough leeway to quickly escape.

During elections, there was regular patrolling by police control room vans and security personnel would remain vigilant, because of which no such accident took place for the first few months of the year.

In 2015, criminals opened fire on a 28-year-old man. “He was travelling in Swift Dzire but did not stop and sped away. The windows of the car were damaged but he survived,” said a senior police officer.

Locals said police know very well that the areas is crime-prone but take little action to deter criminals.

An investigation officer suspected the Bawaria gang could be behind Thursday’s crime. The gang fixes nails on layers of discarded tyres to puncture tyres of coming vehicles.

They place these along the bumpy stretch, because of which it becomes difficult for drivers to judge them.

Bawarias are said to be nomads from Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan.

Recalling a previous incident, Brahm Dev Sharma, a Sabota resident, said, “On May 31, 2016, the results of panchayat elections were declared. In the evening I went to my sugarcane field and saw three people sitting on a cot. They told me to stop and raise my hands. They said they were police officers searching criminals in the area.”

“When I lifted my hands, one of them came and robbed me of cash and mobile phone and escaped,” he said. Locals say incidents like these are quite common.